ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601120052
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LONDON
SOURCE: DIRK BEVERIDGE ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE STATELY BRITISH are about to be bombarded by the "been there, done that" generation.
Maybe they're going to bill it as the perfect thirst-quencher after a grueling polo match?
Pepsi-Cola International said Thursday it will introduce Mountain Dew, the soft drink with hillbilly roots, into the British market.
The Pepsi marketer in charge of the deal thinks the English will be swayed by the neon-green color and smooth taste that comes from Mountain Dew's lower degree of carbonation as compared with other soft drinks.
``How can a color that's so wild have a taste that's so smooth?'' said Soren Mills, the Pepsi executive who is handling the sales effort.
This novelty factor will have the initial marketing efforts focusing on Mountain Dew itself.
In the United States, Pepsi touts Mountain Dew as a thirst-quencher for lively, rugged young people who can be surprised and satisfied by the drink even though they are a bit jaded by activities such as hang gliding and cliff climbing.
Also, in the United States, Mountain Dew has much more caffeine than the average soft drink, adding appeal to drinkers who want their beverage to give them a jump-start.
The caffeine will be toned down a bit in Britain, where regulators recommend lower levels.
Pepsi spokesman Jon Harris in Somers, N.Y., said Mountain Dew has 55 milligrams of caffeine per 12-ounce serving compared with 37 for Pepsi and 36 for Diet Pepsi. That's 49 percent more caffeine in Mountain Dew than in Pepsi.
Harris said that is still four to five times less caffeine than in a comparable amount of coffee and notes that caffeine-free versions of Mountain Dew are available in the United States.
Until now, the marketers claim, there has been nothing like Mountain Dew in Britain, which, despite its reputation as a place for afternoon tea and pints of bitter beer, boasts a soft-drink market worth $12.4 billion a year.
``We identified what we call the `gulpable gap' - the lack of a truly refreshing blended flavor,'' said Lisa Roby, marketing manager at Britvic Soft Drinks, Pepsi's bottling partner in Britain. ``Mountain Dew will effectively fill this gap.''
Pepsi predicted Mountain Dew, with annual U.S. sales of $2.7 billion, can achieve British sales of about $62 million in the first year.
That would make it the nation's second-biggest selling noncola soft drink, after orange-flavored Tango, sold separately by Britvic.
Mills said Pepsi's high hopes for Mountain Dew are based largely on an unusually strong loyalty among its drinkers.
While the average Coca-Cola drinker in the United States consumes about 49.5 quarts a year, the average Mountain Dew drinker consumes almost 55 quarts, Mills said.
Thus, Pepsi says it believes Mountain Dew will increase the size of the market rather than encouraging Britons to switch brands.
But Pepsi's tests with potential consumers showed that those who do change brands are most likely to dump Lilt, a Caribbean-style fruit drink sold by Coca-Cola, Mills said.
On its American home turf, Mountain Dew has been gaining market share rapidly this past year.
The trade publication Beverage Digest estimates its share of the take-home market has jumped to 5.7 percent through early November from 4.9 percent at the same point in 1994. That's the biggest market share increase of any major carbonated soft drink in the United States over that period, says Beverage Digest editor and publisher John Sicher.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB